Posted by The Globe and Mail, Canada on May 14, 2008 at 11:44:07:
Even chefs dream of statuettes
David Wong has endured nine-hour practice days for more than a year in a bid to be named the best chef in the world
CINDA CHAVICH
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
May 14, 2008 at 10:06 AM EDT
VANCOUVER — It's Bocuse d'Or practice day at the Art Institute of Vancouver's cooking school, and chef David Wong is carefully wrapping a moulded morsel of scallop and mushrooms in paper-thin strips of asparagus.
It's beautiful, but his coach, Robert Sulatycky, isn't impressed.
"It's not perfect, and it has to be absolutely perfect," he says. "The judges' eyes will go directly to anything that's not just right."
It's a harsh assessment, but Mr. Sulatycky, executive chef at the legendary Beverly Hills Hotel, speaks from experience. The Alberta-born chef was a judge at last year's Bocuse d'Or in Lyon, France, and a contender in 1999, finishing fourth. It's the closest any North American chef has ever come to the podium at the most important professional cooking competition in the world.
"What I learned, competing and judging, is to practise over and over again, and question everything that you do," Mr. Sulatycky tells Canada's latest Bocuse hopeful. "We have be honest; we have to pull it apart, because there's going to be some brutal competition."
Mr. Sulatycky has flown in today from California to help Mr. Wong, 36, and his apprentice, Grace Pineda, 22, hone their creations, tiny, sculpted mouthfuls designed to win the Oscar of the culinary world in January. The pair have already been practising - tweaking this artistic morsel and several others for their two presentation platters - for more than a year. And with less than a year to go before they compete in France, Mr. Sulatycky and team manager Vince Parkinson are pushing the young cooks hard.
Thankfully, three of the other savoury bits - including an addictive combination of carrots and foie gras, enclosed in a tiny and perfectly drum-shaped form - have passed muster.
"I felt it went okay - we have enough stuff there to reel it in, and I know exactly what I need to do," Mr. Wong, an instructor at the Dubrulle Culinary Arts program in Vancouver, reflects after nine gruelling hours of cooking.
They'll be back every few weeks until the competition. Mr. Wong and Ms. Pineda not only have to create the most beautiful and delicious food for a panel of picky international judges - they have to do it on stage, in a stadium filled with screaming, flag-waving fans who look as though they just stepped away from a soccer match.
It's an incredible pressure cooker for any chef. Mr. Sulatycky recalls crying as he sent out his award-winning meat platter after the five-hour ordeal, but says, apart from his wedding day, "it was the single greatest experience in my life."
"It's totally changed the way I approach cooking - that search for perfection becomes part of you."
Since its inception 20 years ago, the Bocuse d'Or has become the most coveted title in chefdom. Chef Paul Bocuse, considered one of the best cooks of the 20th century, created the event in 1987 and still sits at the judging table, alongside the world's finest chefs. The Fat Duck's Heston Blumenthal, El Bulli's Ferran Adria, and Wolfgang Puck have all been on the high-powered jury.
Canada has sent some of its brightest stars to compete over the years - from Jamie Kennedy and Michael Noble to Andrew Springett and the 2007 competitor, Scott Jaeger. But Canada has never returned home victorious.
France, the home team, has won gold in six of the 10 events since the biennial contest began. But several other countries - including Norway, Belgium and Sweden - have consistently made it into one of the top three spots.
It's rumoured they succeed by sinking up to $1-million into their Bocuse candidates, financing year-long sabbaticals so contestants can train full-time, and gathering the country's best chefs to coach.
The Canadian team works in relative obscurity, doing all it can to beg and borrow equipment and money to scrape together its $180,000 Bocuse d'Or budget and publicize the event. Moxie's restaurants is a sponsor and chefs across the country are helping with fundraising dinners.
It's incredible to imagine how a dish can be refined for 24 months before a single plate is served, but any minuscule misstep can make the difference. Pointing to photos of food he helped judge last year, Mr. Sulatycky says the proof is in the execution on game day.
"These are the best cooks from their countries and of the 24 fish dishes I judged, six were perfect and 18 were undercooked, overcooked or ice cold," he says.
Mr. Wong, previously the executive chef at the Fairmont Hotel Macdonald in Edmonton, is taking a pragmatic approach, studying the successes and failures of past competitors, and researching cooking techniques. Once the dishes are perfected, he will begin time trials - cutting and chopping, searing and slicing, until every move is fast and flawless and performed by rote.
"I'm a good student and I like to be as cautious, careful and deliberate as possible," he says.
The pressure will only increase as the months tick by. Mr. Wong says he may see a sports psychologist or personal trainer, to help him focus both mind and body on the event. But he's ready for the challenge.
"Sometimes I think that I have so much work to do that it's unachievable," Mr. Wong admits, "but I know I'm the right person for this."
Kitchen confidential
Read about a typical practice
day for Canada's Bocuse d'Or hopeful David Wong as he
prepares to compete for the
culinary world's highest honour globeandmail.com/life